Republican leaders in the Louisville Metro Council are headed to Frankfort this week to lobby state lawmakers on pension reform.

The city’s pension cost has more than doubled in the past decade to make up approximately 15 percent of the budget.  In his State of the City address, Mayor Greg Fischer urged residents to call for their legislators to take action in this year’s session to change the system.

Republican Caucus Chairman Ken Fleming, R-7, and Vice-Chairman Jerry Miller, R-19, are scheduled to meet with Republican state Sen. Damon Thayer of Georgetown, who co-chaired a legislative task force on the state pension system.

Miller says rising pension costs are at critical stage and are extremely important for Louisville residents because of the potential impact on city services.

"If you’re in government you have to deal with pension cost because of it’s dramatic increase, which is really crowding out a lot of other things we’d like to do—social services and a variety of other things," he says.

An Indiana Senate committee has approved a bill that would crack down on retailers who sell synthetic drugs.

Lawmakers have previously outlawed substances such as synthetic marijuana, also known as Spice or K2, and bath salts, but Sen. Jim Merritt (R-Indianapolis)  says some shops are still selling them.

"If it walks like a skunk, and it smells like a skunk and it looks like a skunk, it’s a skunk.   And what we have on retail counters today are skunks," Merritt said. 

A bill intended to protect health care workers from assault by body fluid or waste has advanced in the Indiana General Assembly.

Bill sponsor Sen. Michael Crider (R-Greenfield), who also heads a hospital security team, says current state law does not cover employees at medical facilities who often have to deal with intoxicated or agitated patients.

With the news that more than a dozen tea party groups are actively recruiting a GOP candidate to run against U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014, it’s worth taking a look at how Kentucky tea party-endorsed candidates have fared in statewide or Congressional races.

Since forming in the run up to the 2010 mid-term elections, Kentucky's tea party has won more than a third of the races its challenged for prominent offices, and its candidates have won several primaries over Republican establishment candidates.

Jefferson County Public Schools officials are optimistic about the future of career and technical education programs in the district despite a drop in enrollment last year.

A higher than projected enrollment in JCPS CTE programs this year has led to an increase in state funding of nearly $200,000. The JCPS board approved the increase in funding at Monday night's meeting.

The president of the Louisville-based Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is criticizing the Boy Scouts of America's decision to re-examine a policy that excluded openly gay scouts and scout leaders.

Albert Mohler discussed the possible Boy Scouts change with USA Today, calling it "nothing less than disastrous" for the organization. The newspaper quotes him: 

The pollution in China's capital has intensified again, and some residents are turning to gas masks to breathe. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing is tracking the current air quality, and it's most recent reading finds that even late at night, the air is hazardous: "Everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors; people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children should remain indoors and keep activity levels low."

A few months ago, I reported that a new Metro Government app to encourage citizens to participate in cataloging the city’s tree canopy was available on iTunes. Now, the city’s tree commission has revamped the app, and changed its focus to ash trees.